Lonely Heart

Written by: David Fury
Directed by: James A. Contner

Cast: David Boreanaz, as Angel, Charisma Carpenter, as Cordelia Chase, Glenn Quinn, as Doyle.

Guest Stars: Elisabeth Rohm, as Detective Kate Lockley, Lillian Birdsell, as Sharon Richler, Obi Ndefo, as Bartender.

It’s Friday night in L.A. and Angel is sitting all alone in his dark office. Doyle comes in, flips on the light and says they may need to go over this thing of Angel going out in the world and getting involved with people again. It’s the most social night of the week and he feels they should be out enjoying the nightlife, instead of sitting around, moping in the dark. He thinks it might be a good idea for the three of them to go out and toast the new business. Picking up on his real motives, Angel tells Doyle if he wants to go out with Cordelia, he should just ask her, but Doyle isn’t sure if Cordelia even likes him. He’s trying to convince Angel to put in a good word for him when Cordelia shows up with new calling cards for their business. Impressed with what she’s done, she hands each of them a card, only to become frustrated when they can’t figure out what the design is. “It’s an angel”, she says after they both make wrong guesses and Doyle, obviously infatuated with her, tells her it’s very clever. Then Doyle is hit with the pain of an oncoming vision. He sees flashes of a bar – no faces, just a feeling that something is going to happen there. Angel says it looks like he got his wish – they’re going out after all.

At the bar, a guy (Kevin) walks up to a girl (Sharon) sitting alone at the bar and introduces himself to her. She seems to be the quiet type, while he has a creepy sort of look about him. He tells her he hates places like this and the two make their way over to a table, where they talk about how they’re both looking to meet that someone special.

Angel, Doyle and Cordelia arrive and the trio splits up to look for someone in trouble or someone trying to cause trouble. Angel heads to the bar to talk to the bartender while Cordelia passes out calling cards and does a little people watching with Doyle. They spot a couple heading up the stairs to leave (Sharon & Kevin) and Cordelia comments that the woman, who she describes as Sarah, Plain & Tall, must have money to land a “Calvin Klein” guy like him. Doyle says she’s providing some valuable insights, but they need to find someone in trouble. Cordelia wonders how Angel is doing.

Not very well apparently, because he’s busy trying to convince a guy at the bar he wasn’t hitting on him. The guy walks away, giving the woman sitting next to them an opportunity to ask Angel if he’s okay. She tells him she thinks he looks bad and then tries to explain what she really meant, but fails miserably and goes back to her drink. She seems to be as uncomfortable with small talk as Angel is, but he, thinking she may be the one in trouble, introduces himself anyway. “I’m Kate,” she says and the two begin to talk.

They talk about everything from what he does for a living to meeting people in bars. Eventually Kate tells him she has a hard time trusting people, men in particular, and coming to places like the bar don’t make it any easier. She feels that people won’t show you who they really there because they’re all too busy trying to get whatever it is they want. Angel asks what she wants and she says she’s just trying to make a connection. “What do you want,” she asks him and he says he isn’t sure, but he’ll know it when he sees it. She asks him if he’d like to go somewhere quiet, but he can’t – he needs to stay there. Thinking he’s rejecting her, she turns slightly away and the two sit in uncomfortable silence.

In the meantime, Doyle and Cordelia have managed to find someone who’s trying to cause trouble. The only problem is it’s with them. It seems a guy who received one of the calling cards believes Cordelia’s offering services of another kind and when he and one of his friends approach her, Doyle steps up and punches them both. A fight begins and Angel jumps in to even the odds. The bartender finally manages to break it up and orders the two guys to leave. Doyle and Cordelia walk away, but a woman comes up and starts talking to Angel, and he follows her to the bar to find out if she’s the one who needs help. He smiles and tries to talk to her, but she’s too busy being wrapped up in herself to notice his change of expression when he sees Kate leaving. “Isn’t it great when two people make a connection?” she asks.

At an apartment, Sharon and Kevin have apparently been making a connection of their own because they’re lying under the covers in bed. Sharon says it’s late and starts to get up to dress, but Kevin says he’d like to hold her. He wraps his arms around her and she stays.

Back at the bar, Cordelia, Doyle and Angel sit at a table discussing the events of the night. Angel finds it very hard to believe they came just to break up a bar fight. He asks if either of them had a sense that anyone there was in trouble and Cordelia says “Yeah, everybody.” Angel thinks socializing is brutal and he doesn’t remember it being this hard when he was young. Doyle said that’s because he went to taverns in small towns where everybody knew one another. Cordelia compares it to high school, saying it was easier to date there because everyone had something in common. She says it must be harder for Angel to socialize though because he has the curse to consider. Angel thanks her for her perspective and the three of them leave.

The next morning, Sharon is sitting on the side of Kevin’s bed getting dressed. She reaches down to fix her shoe and we see Kevin lying in the bed next to her. He’s dead.

That night, Doyle, Cordelia and Angel use the Internet and the newspaper to try and find out if any suspicious events have taken place in or around the bar. They find out a girl, who was last seen at the bar, has been missing for the last month or so and the eviscerated body of a man who was last seen there was found as well. Angel feels there have probably been more, but the press hasn’t tied them all together yet. He tells Doyle and Cordelia to see what they can find out about eviscerating demons while he heads to the bar.

Running into Kate outside the bar, Angel tries to apologize for the previous night, but she tells him it isn’t necessary. He apologizes anyway and she says maybe he can buy her a drink and they can start fresh. He says he doesn’t think she should go in there because he doesn’t think it’s safe. She asks what’s not safe, but he can’t tell her. Kate tells him he isn’t making her ability to trust people any better. He says he’s just asking her not to go in there. She wants to know where he is going and he tells her he’s going inside. Angry now, she tells him to go to hell and walks on into the bar. “Been there. Done that,” he says and follows her through the door.

Inside, Kate makes her way to the bar and grabs a seat. Angel starts to go talk to her, but decides it’s best to leave her alone and finds a seat down the bar. Glancing down and seeing him, Kate tells the girl sitting next to her that some guys have real problems. The girl next to her is Sharon and it looks like she’s hooked herself up with a new guy tonight. Down the bar where Angel is sitting, a guy comes up and asks the bartender if he’s seen Kevin tonight. He didn’t make it to work and isn’t answering his phone. The bartender hasn’t seen him since the night before when he left when some girl. “What girl?” Angel asks.

Back at Angel’s, Cordelia and Doyle are making a list of potential demons. She thinks demons are disgusting, but Doyle says not all of them are. He thinks a lot of them are nice, once you get to know them. Cordelia says she’s known a lot of demons and slime aside, there isn’t a lot going on there. Doyle just nods his head in agreement as she goes back to reading.

“Sharon. Sharon. Her names Sharon.” Back at the bar, the bartender tells Angel & Kevin’s friend that she’s there tonight without Kevin. He tries to point her out, but she and the guy she was with are gone. He doesn’t know where she lives, but Angel manages to get a last name out of Kevin’s friend. He heads out to the pay phone and looks her up in the phone book. He rips out a page and takes off as Kate watches him through the window.

Meanwhile, Sharon and the guy are back at her place in bed, but she isn’t looking too satisfied this time. The guy is staring up at the ceiling, apologizing to her because things didn’t go any better. He thinks he was trying to hard because he really likes her. Sharon doesn’t seem interested in anything he has to say. She tells him to roll over and slides closer to him. He starts to say something, but gasps in horror instead as a demon breaks through Sharon’s chest and begins to burrow itself into his back. Angel finally arrives and breaks through the door, only to find he’s too late. Sharon is already dead.

The guy she was with is standing next to the bed getting dressed and Angel sees the last part of the demon makes its way into his body. He turns, looks at Angel and says, “You’re not human.” Angel says he’s a bit off the evolutionary chart himself and the guy looks over at Sharon’s eviscerated body. Angel tells him it has to stop and the guy says it will – as soon as he finds a body he can stay with. Angel wants to know what’s wrong with the body he has now, but the guy says nothing is. He just knows it isn’t the one he can live in. Angel tells him it will have to be the one he dies in and they fight. Angel vamps out as the fight continues, but the demon picks him up and launches him into a table. When Angel looks up again, the demon is gone, but someone else is there – Kate.

Standing up, he asks her what she’s doing there and then he realizes she’s seen the body. He says he knows what this looks like, but she pulls out a gun and a badge and says she does too. She’s an LA cop and she’s been tracking him since the previous night. With the gun pointed at him, Angel tries to explain what’s really going on, but Kate isn’t listening. Believing he did it, she says, “It’s frustrating, isn’t it? Not being able to connect – to love like other people.” She asks how he gets people to trust him and he tells him the demon does it by giving them what they want – hope. Kate says she doesn’t want to hear any more lines and she tries to handcuff him. He says he’s sorry and she asks if that’s a confession, but he tells her he didn’t do that – he’s sorry for this and he knocks her to the floor. Jumping out the window, he lands on a car and then heads down the street. Kate watches him from the window while the demon watches him from the sidewalk.

At Angel’s request, Doyle and Cordelia have gone to her place to wait for him. Doyle is shocked at how messy her apartment is and calls her disgusting when he steps in a dirty bowl sitting on the floor. Angel arrives and after Cordelia makes him promise to be good, she invites him inside, where they talk about the demon. Angel asks them to keep trying to find out more information about the demon while he heads back to the bar. Cordelia isn’t sure it will be out again since it knows Angel is tracking it, but Angel says it will be because it has to make a connection. She asks why and Angel says because that’s what lonely people do.

– Music plays and we see the demon at the bar talking to a girl and Kate snooping around Angel’s apartment. Angel is looking for the demon at the bar, but it’s already gone. In bed, we see the demon burrow it’s way into another body. The sun begins to rise and Angel makes his way back to Cordelia’s. –

Entering the apartment, he finds Doyle and Cordelia asleep on the couch. They wake up and he tells them he didn’t have any luck. They fill him in on the information they found and he says he’s going to need help finding the demon. Despite Doyle and Cordelia’s objections, he calls Kate and arranges a meeting with her at the bar that night.

Kate arrives at the bar and takes a seat at a table. The bartender comes up and asks her what she wants. She flashes her badge and asks him to let her know when Angel arrives. A guy comes over to her table and sits down. He tells her he hates places like this and she’s in the process of telling him she’s waiting for someone to arrive when the bartender comes over and tells her Angel is out back in the alley. The guy veers after her as she follows the bartender to Angel.

They walk into a storage room and the bartender hits Kate from behind. She falls to the floor and he rips open the back of her shirt and pulls her up to his chest. The demon starts coming out of the bartender’s body, but Angel comes in and knocks him over. He wakes Kate and gets her to move before the demon can hit her again. Angel and the demon fight, but the demon manages to knock Kate and Angel into the basement and lock the door. As Kate and Angel try to escape, the demon goes out to find another body.

Outside on the sidewalk, the demon becomes desperate when no one will speak to him and decides to just take someone. He manages to drag a screaming woman down an alley, but Kate and Angel, who made it out of the basement through a window, hear her and take off after him. Angel attacks the demon and the girl runs away. They continue fighting, but Angel gains the upper hand and pushes the demon toward a fire barrel the people in the alley had been using. The demon catches on fire and comes at Angel, but Kate appears from around the corner and shoots him. As the police and firemen clean up the scene, Kate and Angel clear the air and decide to start again with a clean slate. Angel hands her a card and tells her he’ll be around if she ever needs him and then he leaves.

Back at the office, Angel tells Doyle and Cordelia that he knows they’ve been cooped up working a lot lately so he thought the three of them could head out for a night on the town and have some fun. Cordelia and Doyle look at each other and then tell Angel they are going home so he can sit in the dark alone. “Thank you”, he breathes as he sits down in his chair and flips off the light.

DVD Guide

Chapter 1: A Quiet Friday Night
Chapter 2: Main Titles
Chapter 3: Making Connections
Chapter 4: Fight Night
Chapter 5: Tough Love
Chapter 6: Frosty Blondes
Chapter 7: Fresh Meat
Chapter 8: Demon Date
Chapter 9: Frisk Me Kate
Chapter 10: Trashy Girl
Chapter 11: Lonely Hearts Club
Chapter 12: On The House
Chapter 13: Bad Pick-Up Lines
Chapter 14: Alone At Last
Chapter 15: End Credits

Summary by LovesWitch

Quotes

Key: A=Angel, C=Cordelia, D=Doyle, K = Kate

D: You know, maybe we should go over this thing again of you getting out in the world and involving yourself with people. It’s Friday night! It’s the most social night of the week! I mean a couple of lookers like us should be out there enjoying the night life, instead you’re sitting here moping around in the dark like some kind of a . . .
A: Vampire?
D: Well, yeah, I was gonna say slacker, but yeah, to you Mr. Obvious….

D: I think we deserve a night of fun, don’t you think? I mean, it breaks up the nights of death and mayhem.

D: Tell her what I great guy I am.
A: I barely know you.
D: Well, perfect, that should make it easier for ya.

D: When you’re talking me up to her, whatever you do don’t let her in on that me being half-demon, okay? Because women get a little funny about that.

D: It’s not like you have a signal folks can shine in the sky whenever you need help, right?

A: There’s our number…. it’s right next to a, um, a butterfly?
D: It’s obviously not a butterfly you idiot, it’s a, uh… bird. No, wait, no it’s an owl! A bird that hunts at night! Brilliant! It’s a ….
C: It’s an angel!

D: It’s a bar. I think I recognized it. One of those terminally stuck in the 80s places.

A: I’m just wondering. Have you noticed anything unusual here tonight?
Bartender: Unusual?
A: Yeah, you know. Out of the ordinary? Possibly even dangerous?
Bartender: Don’t worry. It’s early yet. The real hot women don’t mosey in until around 11.

C: Hi! If you’re in trouble just call this number. We can help. Hi! Being harassed by someone or something? Dial us up, day or night. Hey, you look troubled, or is that just your lazy eye? Anyway, call us, we’re very discreet.

D: This isn’t a marketing seminar, princess. You know, we need to operate a little bit more below radar.
C: What radar?
D: The police. You know the service our friend Angel provides? Might put someone in mind to the V word.
C: Vampire?
D: No, vigilante.

D: See, you need to chat people up a bit more casual like, you know? “Hi, what’s your name? How’s life treating you? What’s that you say? Minions from hell getting you down?”

A: Seriously, I wasn’t hitting on you….

K: I prefer those cool bars that are hard to get in to, but I can’t get into them.

A: I’m just looking for someone to … rescue? Are you maybe in need of some rescuing?

A: I’m not very good at this talking….

K: I gave up on the Knight in Shining Armor concept a while ago. Anyway, I don’t really expect to find them here at the International House of Poseurs.

K: How else are you gonna meet somebody out side of work. It’s either this or sit at home alone in the dark.
A: Wouldn’t want that.

K: So, um, what do you do?
A: Do?
K: For a living?
A: I, uh, well basically I’m uh, I help…. I’m a veterinarian.

C: What’s with those vision things of yours?
D: Well, they’re messages I get, from the higher powers, whoever they are. You know, it’s my gift.
C: If that was my gift, I’d return it.

C: Plus, your visions are kind of lame. A bar? That’s nice and vague. I mean, they should send you one of those self-destructing tapes, you know, that comes with a dossier?
D: Well, I’ll be sure to mention it.

K: Way to come off like a drunken slut. Slut’s better than a hypocrite, right? I’m moving up?
A: You’re kind of hard on yourself.
K: Well, I’m a self-flagellating hypocrite slut. What was the question?

D: Everyone just simmer down here. Violence isn’t going to solve a thing.
::SMASH::
D: On the other hand, it’s kind of festive.

A: Are you okay?
Girl: Well now, that’s for you to find out.
A: No, I mean, I’d really like to know. So, how do you want to do this? Twenty questions?

A: So, Marcy from Barstow. That doesn’t even rhyme or anything.

A: I’m having a hard time believing Doyle’s vision meant that I was supposed to come here and break up a bar fight.
D: Yeah, well, if it was, I’m in for some serious workman’s comp.

A: This socializing thing is brutal. I mean I was young once. I used to go to bars. It was never like this.
D: No, you used to go to taverns, man. Small towns, everybody used to know each other.
C: Yeah, like high school. It’s easy to date there. We all had so much in common. Being monster food every other week for instance.

C: I guess the single life is particularly tough on you.
A: Why?
C: Well, a couple hundred years ago, the only thing you had to worry about was a hangover. Today, because of your curse thingy, you can’t sleep with anyone or else you might feel a moment of true happiness and lose your soul, become evil – again – and kill everyone.
A: Thanks Cordelia. I always appreciate your perspective.

C: Hey, the last thing I want is to show up at the office and find that I’m working for a homicidal monster.

C: Okay, I’m in the newsgroup search engine. Now, what’s the name of the place again?
A: D’Oblique. Capital D, apostrophe, capital O-b-l-i….
C: Not so fast. Okay. Capital ‘D’…. apostrophe… apostrophe… Oh! I got it. Now, what comes next again?

A: How’d you pick up computer skills?
C: Downloading pictures of naked women?
D: Well that’s more or less accurate.

A: I’m just asking you not to go in there.
K: Where are you going?
A: In there.
K: Well, I’ll tell you what. I can go wherever I want, and you can go to Hell.
A: Been there. Done that.

C: Demons. Is there anything more disgusting?
D: You think so?
C: Come on. Look at this one. This demon wears a wreath of intestines around its head. I mean, honestly, what kind of statement is this thing trying to make?

C: I’ve known a lot of demons, and slime aside, not a lot going on there.

Talmar: You’re not human.
A: Newsflash, pal. You’re a bit off the evolutionary chart yourself.

K: You’re telling me you’re an investigator?
A: More or less.
K: Where’s your license?
A: That’s the less part.

D: Wow, this place is, uh…. I thought girls were supposed to like pretty things.

C: That is so high school. Cordelia wears bras. Ooooh, she has girl parts.
D: I think it’s refreshing to see a woman living like this. It means you’re not so uptight. You live for the moment. ::Steps in cereal bowl:: You’re disgusting.

C: You promise you’ll stay good?
A: Cordelia…
C: I’m kidding, come in.

A: You actually live here?
C: Yes, okay? Is it my fault that maid service was interrupted? It was supposed to go home, hotel, hotel, husband. Now, can we move on?

A: It’s a burrower.
C: It’s a donkey? We didn’t see any donkey demons.

A: I know I can recognize this thing if I just saw it in another body.
D: That shouldn’t be a problem then. That narrows it down to, what, 5 million suspects in the naked city?

C: It’s a parasite, moves from body to body, and when it starts to move from one to the next, not gonna gag here, but the first one goes gerpluey pretty fast.
D: Yup, curdles like cream on a hot day.
C: Uh, I believe I covered that with nondairy gerpluey.

D: Who you calling?
A: Kate.
C: Cagney and Lacey Kate?
K: Sure, that’s actually on my To Do list this week, “Walk into serial killer’s trap.”

K: Who *are* you?

A: If you ever need me, or if I can help you in any way…
K: What is this, a lobster?

A: I know you guys have been working hard and cooped up inside a lot. And, uh, to show my appreciation, I was thinking, the night being you know, young and all… that the three of us could, well, should maybe … go out. You know… for fun.
C: Or…. we can… go home!
D: And you can sit in the dark alone.
A: God yes. Thank you.

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